“Tired, but I’m okay to keep moving.”
He didn’t believe her, but he would take that answer. He was getting tired himself. At some point they would have to find a good spot to rest because while they still had some daylight left he knew that light would eventually fade and at some point they would both need sleep. He didn’t know how he was going to manage that. He wasn’t a heavy sleeper, but these guys were hunters who were skilled at silently sneaking up on their prey. Beyond that, if he were asleep he wouldn’t be able to quickly defend them. It was times like these, those times when staying awake was critical, that he wished he were Superman. He had never been hunted before, but he had gone on some climbs with Gavin that had them sleeping on the side of a mountain, or at the top while one kept watch for night active animals while the other one slept before switching shifts. He wished Gavin were here now. If he were here their hunters would already be dead. His buddy the former Marine—or was he still really a Marine. He had heard the saying, “once a Marine, always a Marine,” and given Gavin’s contacts he would say that was true. He had never seen a man with so many friends ready to take up arms and fight with him, die beside him if it came to that, kill for him—the man had an army ready to go to war with him. Right now Cody could use that army. But since help was not soon to come he would just have to do what he could do to keep them alive.
“I wonder how these guys plan to get away with this. I mean you can’t just murder thirteen people and not have anybody notice.”
“I’m not sure they have much of a plan beyond the hunt. It’s not like they would just know we would all be up here. We do this hiking tour often, but unless they were watching the boards at the station they wouldn’t know exactly which trail we were taking.”
“On line,” she said because she had booked her trip because of what she saw on line. Of course she didn’t realize she was booking this trip.
“No, our on line information lists the trails we have done before, but that the hike is subject to the conditions on the mountain. It’s easier to give people an idea of what a four day hike might be than to say an exact point. Sometimes we get late spring snow up here, or there are more wild predators roaming about and we have to scout it out to make sure it’s safe so we modify the hiking trail to fit the conditions. Parker and I didn’t agree on this route until after we hiked it ourselves two weeks ago, and then we posted the details at the station a few days after that. We didn’t upload the details to the internet because we never do. That might be changing with the new owners making more changes, but for now that’s how it works. They wouldn’t have known we would be up here unless they studied the station board and I don’t remember that guy. Of course this is part time and seasonal for me based on my work schedule as a ranger so he could have been there and I wouldn’t have known.”
“It’s scary how crazy people have become. Maybe it’s something in the water,” she looked up at him and smiled. “At any rate I have another problem.”
“What’s wrong? Is your ankle getting worse?”
“No. I um…I have to go.”
“Go?”
She looked at him innocently. “You know, go,” she nodded her head towards a section of rock boulders.
“Oh,” he grinned. “Behind those rocks will give you some privacy.”
“Thanks for stopping.” She started to hobble away until she dropped her cane. They stooped down at the same time to pick it up which was good because the bullet hit the tree behind them instead of him. If the bullet had hit Cody it would have hit the dead center of his head. Cody pulled Sahara up fiercely, ignoring her yelp as the weight came down on her ankle. He dragged her behind the boulders. They were safe, for now, but he had dropped the rifle in the process which only left him with the handgun. He was going to need to have a good shot and right now he didn’t have a clear one. He didn’t even see the guy.
“That was my boy!” Farley yelled. “You killed my boy! And now I’m going to kill you. I’m going to make you dead the way you made my boy dead. I’m going to snap your neck like a chicken and then I’m going to take that piece of tail you have with you and give her to my other boy and let him carve her up when he’s done. You think about that! You think about your death and hers since you killed my boy!” He fired off another shot in their direction.
“Damn,” Cody mumbled. “We’re pinned down.
Chapter Ten
Parker saw the
helicopter through the trees. If he could get to the clear space he could at least alert the pilot to their need for help. It wasn’t a big enough space for that thing to make a landing, but if he could get to it without getting shot he could at least try to get help on the way. All of them wouldn’t fit on that thing even if it could land. The problem that he had right now was the shooter was still out there stalking them. He had regained most of the group; Riley was still missing and the only thing Parker could assume that meant was that he was the victim the bastard was boasting about getting. Unless the guy was just trying to make them all more scared than they already were.
“I did not sign up for this,” Parker mumbled to himself. When he took this job nowhere in the job description did it say that he was likely to become prey to some crazy man’s hunting games. But now that he was in the thick of it he had to make sure they all survived. He loved adventure tours but he was going to have to seriously rethink his choice in profession after this. Then he thought about it; what were the odds something like this would ever happen again? He couldn’t live his life in fear, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t consider moving to a small town and just doing smaller nature hikes—some place where the hunters did not roam.
“I have to try to make the clearing,” he told the group around him.
“No,” Donald Baker said. “You’re the best hope everybody has for getting down alive. I’ll do it.”
“Dad, no.” Shell grabbed hold of his arm.
“I played football, son. I know how to run. I’ll do this.”
“Then I’m going to have to pull distraction mode. On your own you’re a duck waiting to be shot.”
“I can do it,” Stacey said. “I’ve messed things up. I owe it to Nikki to do this.”
Parker shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“I’ll do it,” Shell said and before either he or Don could stop him Shell had already started making a run for the clearing. Don rattled off several expletives before he took the diversion method to try to protect his son and Parker, knowing he was the only hope for the remaining people, decided he still couldn’t sit by and watch two people get shot.
“I’m going around back. If we don’t make it you keep heading south,” he told Julian. “You take them south.”
“Got it.”
On those words Parker was off heading toward the last position the shots came from. They had to win this one. They had to make it because if they didn’t then they were all soon to be dead.
“I’m going to have to make a play for this one, Sahara.”
“No,” she said emphatically. “He’ll kill you.”
“I can’t just sit here and you know that. All the cards are in his hand and he can stay out there and wait for one of us to fall asleep, sneak up behind us and get a shot off before you can blink. We have to do something, and we have to do it before it gets dark.”
“There are a lot of daylight hours left,” she said as if that was going to change what had to be done. She knew he was right. She knew they couldn’t keep sitting there because that’s exactly what that man out there wanted—to pick them off like lame ducks. She just didn’t want to risk Cody.
“Sahara,” he looked at her, softening his gaze as he placed the palm of his hand on her cheek.
“Let me do it.”
“No,” he barked out the word in a near violent rage filled voice.
“Cody, if you get hurt—”
“No. What are you going to do with your ankle like that? Do you think he won’t hesitate to grab you and use you as bait?”
“Do you think if you go out there and get shot while you try to get to that rifle that I’m any better off? If I draw his attention you can get behind him.” She noticed how the wheels in his head seemed to be turning. He knew she was right. It was going to take the two of them working together. Ankle pain or no ankle pain she was going to have to put her life on the line here. She was doing it, not just for herself, but for him too. He deserved a full life, unlike their hunter. God she wished she had a gun—a real gun, a big gun that she could actually shoot. She laughed to herself at the thought. She didn’t have the best aim in the world so a gun in her hand could be more dangerous than helpful, but having one would make her feel a heck of a lot safer than she did right now.
“I’ll go out that way,” she whispered as she pointed to their right. “You can wait until you see him moving and go around behind him.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then I hope you have a plan B,” she said as she quickly, as quick as she could anyway, started moving away from him.
“Sahara!” He was angry and she knew it, but if they sat around debating her plan until the cows came to pasture they were both going to be dead anyway.
She heard laughter. “Send a woman to do your bidding! She won’t get far,” he laughed. “I’ll go after her after I kill you, boy.”
Fortunately she had a plan B. She wasn’t as quick on her feet as she needed to be, but she wasn’t going slowly either. She was putting weight on her ankle and she felt pain shooting through it with the impact of foot to ground connection, but she wouldn’t mess this up. She would just have to suffer through it until she got back to where she needed to be to help Cody.
Cody didn’t have a choice. He had to take action even if Sahara had taken it upon herself to try to do something. When he saw his assailant coming he got to a position that allowed him the upper hand, and with a quick kick of his foot he knocked the rifle away from him.
The beast growled as if his actions would scare Cody. Cody didn’t scare easily and even if he did he wouldn’t back down.
“I’m Farley Thorpe, boy. You remember that when I kill you.” He lunged at him and Cody stepped aside, expertly avoiding his attack. He delivered a series of quick attacks of his own. Farley, obviously realizing he wasn’t up against a weaker man, decided to try to go for his gun. Cody cut off his path but not without taking a setback of his own when Farley kicked his foot out and knocked him off his feet.
“I’ve another one,” he slurred his words as he wiped blood from his cheek and pulled another gun. “I always come prepared for my prey. Knew this day would come.” He brandished the pistol. “Say hello to your maker for me, boy.”
Before he could get the shot off Sahara swung a log against the back of his big body, knocking him off his feet and sending the pistol across several feet of ground. Farley recovered swiftly and in one move punched Sahara in her right cheek.
Angered beyond control, Cody quickly recovered his balance and came for Farley. “Nobody hits my woman,” he said as he punched Farley repeatedly. When Farley fell Cody straddled him and continued to punch him. Even with his fist pounding on Farley’s face and rage nearly clouding his vision he still heard Sahara.
“Cody,” she yelled. “Cody, I think he’s out now.”
Cody looked down on the badgered and bloody man. Sure enough, he was unconscious. “Get the rope out my bag,” he glared at her as she did what he told her to do. When she handed it to him he yanked it from her, flipped Farley over and hogtied him.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he cut her a look that could kill.
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“It could have gotten you killed.”
“I was sure it would work. For a man like that he would have taken no honor in going after the weaker kill. He would have tried for you.”
Cody brushed his hand through his hair. “Don’t do that again.”
She shrugged. “I do what I like. Your woman or not,” she winked at him. “You did call me your woman; didn’t you?”
He grinned wide. “That I did.”
He heard the static before the chatter. “Pop. They got me don’t come down…” His voice trailed off as whoever had him had taken the communication radio from him.
“You bastard if Cody is…”
“Cody here,” Cody cut off Parker’s rant. “We got him, but we’re going to need a team to come up and get him and then help us down.”
“Man, I am so glad to hear you’re okay. James caught sight of us fighting with this one and he called for help. Rangers are up here now and James used the lift to get Riley up to the chopper and then he flew back down to base.”
“Were any of the others killed?”
“No. Riley just got shot in the shoulder from behind. He’s going to be okay. Maybe next time he’ll stay with the group.”
“Yeah…maybe.” He looked at Sahara who had a definitive look that for her there wouldn’t be a next time. He was sure there was no way he was going to get her back up that mountain ever again.
“We’ll have some people up to you soon. Hang in there.”
“Not going anywhere,” Cody signed off and then picked up the guns Farley had lost before finding a safe spot beside Sahara where he could keep an eye on their prisoner while he saw to Sahara.
“How’s your ankle?”
“Hurting…but that’s on me. If I hadn’t been running on it then it wouldn’t be hurting so badly. At least this is almost over.”
“No chance I’m going to get you back up this mountain is there?”
“Absolutely not,” she said as if he should have known the answer to that.
He laughed. “Well you see we still have the same problem. They can get up, but getting you down won’t be easy. We’ll have to go up,” he pointed, “before a chopper can land for us. That means we’re probably going to have to stay the night at the cabin up there.”
“There’s a cabin up there?”
He nodded. “Belongs to Lula. I am sure she won’t mind. She only uses it once, maybe twice a year. James drops her there via chopper and then he comes back for her when her vacation time is up. Of course with the new owners that might change for her.”
Sahara laid her head on his shoulder. “Thanks for saving my life and not leaving me behind no matter how much I insisted you should.”
“You saved mine too,” he wrapped one arm around her. He held the gun in his free hand just in case he needed it before help arrived.
“I guess we saved each other then,” she cuddled closer to him.
“You’ll have a story to share at the next family dinner.”
“I don’t suppose you would be interested in coming to share it with me; would you?”
“Hmmm,” he sat silent for a minute.
“Of course you wouldn’t,” she sighed.
“Actually, I was just thinking I have some vacation time stored up so yeah; I’ll come.”
“Really,” she looked up to him with a smile on her face.
“Really,” he winked.